Former Stanley Cup-winning coach Mike Keenan savaged the Edmonton Oilers after the first period of Thursday night’s game against the Minnesota Wild. The Oilers and Wild were tied with no score, but Keenan had seen enough of the Oilers.

“We think of the Edmonton Oilers and all of the skill they have, and all the young players and all the greatness, and I reflect upon the teams I coached against, particularly in Philadelphia, two Stanley Cup runs against the Oilers. They had skill, but they had grit. They came every night with a different forumula.

“You can’t go every single night and rely on skill. You’ve got to go to a different package from time to time. You’re not winning games at home? Find a way to win. Get involved emotionally. I watch this game and it’s as flat as can be. You can have all the skill, or talk about all these kids with super skills, they’re listening too much with all the super skills they’ve got, because they’re not executing. Get the job done. Get a little bit of grit into your game.

“We had super skilled players in Edmonton, (Glenn) Anderson, (Mark) Messier, (Jari) Kurri, Gretz wasn’t of that ilk, but Kevin Lowe, their president he was as fierce a competitor as I’ve ever coached (with Cup-winning Rangers team) and I don’t see it in this team. They got no personality.”

My take?

Keenan has a point. The championship Oilers had all kinds of hard-as-nails players in Lowe, Anderson, Charlie Huddy, Dave Semenko, Marty McSorley and Kevin McClelland, and they were also blessed with the immensely talented and uniquely intimidating Mark Messier. You have one player like Messier, suddenly everyone else on the team plays a lot tougher, as we saw with the 2005-06 Oilers, who all were a few inches taller and 10 pounds heavier playing with the menacing Chris Pronger.

This Oilers team doesn’t have that intimidating superstar, but there’s only two or three of those players in the NHL at any one time.

So you can’t blame the Oilers for not having that kind of leader. That said, there is a lack of tough, veteran leadership on this team. Many of the veteran players are OK players, but they’re not exactly fierce.

Eric Belanger, Shawn Horcoff, Nick Schultz, Ales Hemsky, Ryan Smyth, Ryan Jones, all decent-to-good players, but not one of them an overly rough or nasty customer.

And the young players are talented, but a number of them could play with more fire and determination, especially in their own zone.

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the “X” in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.